“Seatac@bbb.org” E-mail Scam Threatens US Businesses

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) announced on April 12, 2010 that fake BBB complaint notifications, as observed by it, are being forwarded to the businesses in the US from the e-mail ID seatac@bbb.org. These so-called business e-mails appears to be an attempt of phishing, as per the news published by SeaTac Blog on April 12, 2010.

According to the BBB, various businesses across the nation have reported that they have received a dubious e-mail from the said fake e-mail ID. The subject line of the e-mail is "BBB Complaint Case#... (Ref #...)." These e-mails come with a reference number of 21 digits and a case number of nine digits.

Although the e-mail text asserts that the firm did not reply to a grievance reported by a customer, Jason Harlow.

However, the real e-mail carries the name of the consumer who registered the complaint, status of the complaint, name of the accused business or company, and opening and closing date of the case.

Also, there is a link in the e-mail that reads "please click here to access the complaint." Consumers who click the link would see that it redirects to a phony BBB webpage, ca-bbb.org, which has already been taken out of service and is unavailable at current.

The attack has targeted both the BBB accredited as well as non-accredited businesses. Advertising agencies, architecture firms and law firms are the affected businesses.

According to Robert W.G. Andrew, CEO of BBB serving Alaska, Oregon and Western Washington, part of the Bureau's function in the market is to be a relied third-party, which includes sending messages and notifying businesses of compliments and complaints from the consumers. He also said that it's really upsetting that cyber criminals are hunting for ways to deceive the system, as per the news published in the BBB, on April 12, 2010.

He further added that the BBB wants to earn the trust of business owners, and that's the reason behind taking action to stop illegal imitators.

Businesses receiving dubious e-mails that claim to be coming from BBB must take the steps which follows: Firstly, avoid clicking any embedded link or responding to the e-mail. Simply forward the suspicious e-mail to phishing@council.bbb.org, and then remove it from the inbox. Also, the system should be thoroughly scanned for viruses.